To CS or not to CS

#question

Hello Dev community, this is my first post here! I'm graduating this semester with a bachelor of fine arts with a major in graphic design (queue the blank stare) and I've been working as a front-end developer at my university for about 4 years. I've since discovered that I'm much happier pecking at code than pushing pixels and decided I'd pursue a career in UI/UX, web design, and/or front-end development.

I know how to code. I'm not an expert and don't claim to be, but I feel that I can hold my own and generally know what I'm doing. I have a deep understanding of accessibility, HTML, CSS, and am comfortable with JavaScript. I recently started playing around with Vue to build my website. (It was previously built with PHP) I'm comfortable with Git, the command line in general and the Node ecosystem.

I'll admit that I don't have knowledge of more full-featured languages like Python, C#, Ruby, etc. But I love learning. Its what I like so much about this industry, that I'm constantly learning new things.

As I'm looking at jobs and networking, however, it never fails. As soon as a potential employer or connection finds out I don't have formal training in computer science they look at me like I wandered off on the wrong floor. They completely shut down and my experience and portfolio suddenly mean nothing.

So, as I'm approaching graduation I'm starting to question the value of my degree and what I should do next. I don't regret getting my BFA. It has been an extremely good experience and I like to think of myself as a decent designer because of it. But I do wonder if I should go back to college for a BS (bachelor of science) or BA (bachelor of arts) in computer science. I've also thought about a bootcamp or an online program that could grant a certificate just to have something to prove that I didn't just learn HTML last night.

If you were an employer, what would you advise? Do employers respect certificates from online programs? With as much money it costs to go to a bootcamp, would it be better to get a CS degree? If I did go for a CS degree, would a BA be looked down on?

Are there any certificates or programs you could link that are well respected in the industry?

I'd especially love to hear from any of you who got a job in tech without a CS degree at all. What were your experiences finding a job?

Thanks everyone!

Top comments (2)

leastbad • May 6 '20

Hi Matthew,

It all really comes down to the sort of place you'd like to work and how you present yourself. My sense is that if you already have one degree under your belt, signing up for another one right away is just delaying real life. As someone who has hired a lot of developers (and mentored many more) I'm much more interested in working with people who are kind, good communicators that have interesting hobbies and a moist intellectual curiousity sponge. Putting together a team is like a rock band: if I wouldn't want to drive across the country and back with this person in a van, why the actual fuck would I sign on to have this toxic asshole up in my space for more hours in a day than I get to see my partner?

The whole whiteboard coding thing is the absolute worst way to filter a candidate. If you can't tell from talking with someone for half an hour whether they have a genuine love for coding, that says more about you than it does them.

I think the most important thing to do is (here comes the opinions) learn Ruby on Rails and start building a real project that is actually interesting to you. It's good that you've played around with Vue, so you'll appreciate it when you realize how much better it can be to do everything you want to do with Stimulus and Turbolinks. I do believe that if you have an interesting problem to solve and even a few mentors or community folks that you can ask for help from, you will move your autodidactic education forward much faster. (I'm reminded of this brilliant wisdom.)

Start finding some open source projects that fascinate you and get involved. Start making commits. You can start with documentation patches and even light branding/design suggestions. There's nothing cheap about offering a not-shitty logo to a project that needs one, for example. Those projects likely have Discords where there are people hanging out that are willing to answer your polite questions, no matter where you are on your growth path.

These days, your GitHub profile is your resume. The sorts of places you want to work are going to be much more excited about consistent open source contributions, a good eye for design, some genuinely interesting side projects that aren't necessarily tech and an excitement to learn than your ability to regurgitate binary search tree algos. Frame the conversation: "my plan is to be this kind of developer in two years, and i'm looking to work with the kind of team where I can make real contributions and be around smart people while i get there". The idea is that you make it clear you and the company, together, can be bigger than the sum of its parts.